BT Infinity & FTTx Discussion

[V_R]

I've found in the past Openreach engineers are either really good, or bloody terrible.

When we moved and I had this new line activated, the OR guy who came was brilliant. He couldn't get a tone and had to go back and forth toe the cab several times, luckily its not very far. Anyway after a good hour or more he sorted it and got the line going and made sure it was performing at full speed.

Some of the guys I'd had in the past have been absolute ****'s who clearly don't give a damn and just want to clear down the job and move on to the next as fast as possible. It does seem to be luck of the draw if you get one that cares or not....

 

[Deleted member 651465]

He was a tidy guy and I think if he was able to work on the broadband problem then he'd have resolved it... I did facepalm when he realised his leads were knackered though. We were chatting as he was working and I remember mentioning to him that it would be easier to check the leads than go through the hassle of taking the socket off the wall...

When he mentioned that he might use jelly crimps to extend the wires coming in to the house I shuddered and shot that down. I even subtly hinted that he could use a different pair, if he suspected a fault with the incoming line.

 

[JasonM]

Typically, I got home from work yesterday and the line sounded like the phone had been put inside a paper bag... so I suspect an intermittent fault that is going to take an age to diagnose and fix.

This is a massive long shot but I had something similar that a BT engineer could not resolve. I fixed it myself as it was dirt/contamination inside the VDSL face plate, I had to remove the face plate myself and clean contacts with electronics cleaner, ironically the BT engineer never spotted it.

 

[j_walsh]

Just seen G fast is available to me so signed up for the 314 / 50 package (Currently on plusnet 80/20)
Being installed tomorrow so will update

 

[V_R]

Nice what's your estimated speeds?

 

[Deleted member 651465]

This is a massive long shot but I had something similar that a BT engineer could not resolve. I fixed it myself as it was dirt/contamination inside the VDSL face plate, I had to remove the face plate myself and clean contacts with electronics cleaner, ironically the BT engineer never spotted it.

Brand new faceplate and I've specifically checked it for the obvious like dirt

 

[Meddling-Monk]

Unfortunately, if your issue is confined to a voice line fault as the main issue, then it's basically a waiting game and a call out each time for "a" fix somewhere until it finally gets done. Over three years, I had:

• Master Socket switch out, twice.
• Move of line within the house and reconnecting, also twice (line was cut and reconnected using metal then gel crimps)
  
• Reconnecting at local junction box.
• Clean up of line at the Cabinet.
• Then finally the swap of an entire swathe of the line between junction box and cabinet. (This was the one that finally sorted out the remaining line noise issue)
• And after that last one, where even the HH5a just kept getting increases in speed with each disconnect, I switched to a different modem/router unit. (Because the HH5a still had/has the biweekly reset by BT, which will cause DLM to drop the speeds again).

It's the problem with high resistance faults I'm afraid. The intermittent nature of it means you need as many call outs as possible until it's resolved. It's sort of hedging bets until you get a good engineer. But quite often the issue is at multiple locations and you need fixes at various points to get a clear line back.

So all I can do is offer you Good Luck in your call outs.

 

[j_walsh]

Nice what's your estimated speeds?

Speed estimate seems to think 260 down and 40 up (around 200m from the cabinet) so I'm hoping something around there or better but we'll see!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Engineer just left. He reset the DLM on the line but his "centre of excellence" wouldn't permit a lift and shift. They even noted issues since 20th April and suggested I try a new handset (because it disconnects when I pick up the phone). So angry because I've had this phone for years and something isn't right on a hardware level when the sync rate drops to less than 1mb at random.

It seems to be that if their test device doesn't pick up a fault, you're stuffed. Not one of the guys has been to look in the manhole out the front garden or up the pole... I'll be expecting to call them out again soon

tl;dr... he's fixed nothing apart from resetting the line.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

@EVH

How old exactly is that phone of yours?

And have you done that interference test with an mv radio? It may not be local to your device and line if the issue is external and not with the equipment that BT is supplying. That's the only thing I can think of if tests show no issues on the line.

 

[gooseuk]

Anyone had any experience with Vodaphone fiber? Seems a great price

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I'd say no older than 3 years old. I've been to the supermarket today to buy a new handset and ruled it out regardless.

Haven't been out looking for interference in a while but I'd be shocked if it was that. Not to mention the last time I went searching for REIN I never found anything conclusive beyond making myself look like the neighbourhood nutcase.

I'm just disappointed they wouldn't take a cursory glance at the cabling in the manhole inspection chamber or on the pole. My line is underground so there is only these two places to look at and one of them is outside the front door, so hardly a chore! I was banking on them switching me to a different port in the DSLAM as they've almost ruled out everything else but it wasn't to be.

 

[kindai]

I'd say no older than 3 years old. I've been to the supermarket today to buy a new handset and ruled it out regardless.

Haven't been out looking for interference in a while but I'd be shocked if it was that. Not to mention the last time I went searching for REIN I never found anything conclusive beyond making myself look like the neighbourhood nutcase.

I'm just disappointed they wouldn't take a cursory glance at the cabling in the manhole inspection chamber or on the pole. My line is underground so there is only these two places to look at and one of them is outside the front door, so hardly a chore! I was banking on them switching me to a different port in the DSLAM as they've almost ruled out everything else but it wasn't to be.

Just ring through to their executive level complaints now, forget going through your ISP.

 

[Meddling-Monk]

OK, so a modern unit shouldn't have any issues with the line.

And no obvious REIN you could detect. (Although, any new changes by any of your neighbours could easily reintroduce it at any time). So lets ignore that then.

On the quiet line test (17070, option 2) do you get crackling and noise? Even if it's intermittent.

Also helps to give the engineer and the operator the rundown of what's been done before, how many times, how recently and how (little) it helped. Eventually you'll get someone who knows that a DLM reset will just be another callout as nothing was changed and they'll get authorisation to do a proper change for you.

Or can try what @kindanotasurprise suggested too. (I just like not involving higher level players until I really need them on something, but I suppose my issues were not as urgent as something like connecting at 1MBs, to which I'd probably get them on it too).

 

[V_R]

Anyone had any experience with Vodaphone fiber? Seems a great price

There's a thread on this very board, have a read.

 

[Casterina]

I'm wondering is this the max speed my line can get.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Engineer just left. He reset the DLM on the line but his "centre of excellence" wouldn't permit a lift and shift. They even noted issues since 20th April and suggested I try a new handset (because it disconnects when I pick up the phone). So angry because I've had this phone for years and something isn't right on a hardware level when the sync rate drops to less than 1mb at random.

It seems to be that if their test device doesn't pick up a fault, you're stuffed. Not one of the guys has been to look in the manhole out the front garden or up the pole... I'll be expecting to call them out again soon

tl;dr... he's fixed nothing apart from resetting the line.

How long was he with you? It seems like he just wanted to get out of there!

My experience echo's the above, either the engineer is useless and won't do anything more that get their test device out (in my experience usually the younger, less experienced engineers) or they will actually investigate properly, up the pole, to the cabinet etc. as you say.

It took me three attempts to get the second type!

Does anyone know, are some Openreach engineers sub-contracted? Or perhaps are the newer engineers on more recent, less generous contracts - this would perhaps explain the indifference.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

How long was he with you? It seems like he just wanted to get out of there!

My experience echo's the above, either the engineer is useless and won't do anything more that get their test device out (in my experience usually the younger, less experienced engineers) or they will actually investigate properly, up the pole, to the cabinet etc. as you say.

It took me three attempts to get the second type!

Does anyone know, are some Openreach engineers sub-contracted? Or perhaps are the newer engineers on more recent, less generous contracts - this would perhaps explain the indifference.

Turned up at 12:40 and was gone by 2:15.

He basically put all his eggs in the tester basket and categorically stated that there was nothing wrong because it passed the line test. I picked up the phone last night and heard noise on the line, so I know it's clearly not! I appreciate you can't test for something that's not manifesting at the time of the visit but I played him a recording of the noise and he still hasn't gone to check the line itself.. that's poor.

 

[the-evaluator]

Does anyone know, are some Openreach engineers sub-contracted? Or perhaps are the newer engineers on more recent, less generous contracts - this would perhaps explain the indifference.

Lots of them are sub-contracted in from Kelly Communications. Normally it'll say on their van if that particular engineer is

 

[ThomP]

My FTTP experience... Ordered FTTP 330/50 on 19th April and was given an install date of 3rd May. The engineer told me some areas have a waiting list of 5 months for an appointment!

The engineer turned up at 8:30am, the new fibre cable would be pulled across a fairly busy road between two telegraph poles before going over a power-line to my property then down the front side of the house. Due to the overhead power-line the engineer had to request a cherry picker which took around 1hr. They finished the external works at around 1pm.

The engineer removed the old copper cable for my phone line and used the copper cable that comes with the fibre cable to terminate my phone-line which increased to my FTTC sync to 8.5mb/s. After a coffee the engineer installed the modem on the wall / terminated the fibre cable. According to the engineer 10% of installs fail at this point due to miss-configuration by the network team however we got all green lights and so we hooked up a 2862 which i had already pre-configured with the pppoe details from my provider & my fttc is now fallback. All working! Engineer left about 2pm.

My speedtests are averaging 310mb down, 50 upload with a 11ms roundtrip on ethernet.

Overall very happy. Now it's time to upgrade my wireless G APs!